How I Helped My 5 Year Old Finally Hold a Pencil Correctly


For some reason, my 5 year old just hasn't been able to get a handle on a correct pencil hold position. No matter how many times I have shown him the correct way to hold a pencil, he would always revert back to his habit of holding it incorrectly.

You may wonder why on earth I cared so much about a pencil hold. After all, if he could write his letters, who cares how he is holding his pencil.

But, I knew that if he developed a wrong pencil hold now, later on down the road when he was writing more than five letters at a time it could definitely make writing difficult because it would be uncomfortable and tiresome for his hand. Not to mention, his handwriting may be more difficult to read.

I read once that 50-70% of Kindergartners are not learning to hold their pencil correctly and I knew that my son was definitely in that percentage. source Up until about 2nd grade, children can adapt to holding a pencil correctly, but after that, it will take a lot of effort on their part to do so. I preferred to get his pencil hold position corrected as soon as possible, but was struggling to figure out how to help him do that.

Some people suggested using the chunky crayons but I felt that they made it even more difficult to assume the correct position. Then I discovered the Write Dudes Training Grips. For 8 bucks on Amazon I got a pack of 10 and I'm relieved to say that they are helping him to hold his pencil correctly.

Each Training Grip comes with a little arrow on it showing which way to put it on the pencil and then the thumb nook has a star on it so the child knows exactly where to put his thumb each time and the other fingers just naturally fall into place.

I think that over time he will get used to where his little fingers go and we can move on from these, but in the mean time, they are helping! I'm going to start his little brother on these from the get go so that we don't have to do any retraining of his pencil hold.

If you have a child that is struggling to hold their pencil correctly, I hope that you find these training grips as helpful as we do!

Teachable Moments-character training tools




Leesa said...

Very helpful. Used the link to add them to my Amazon order. Thanks.

jwhit8791 said...

Thanks Becky! Will definitely look into these for my crew. All but the oldest I am sure could use the help. said...

You're welcome Leesa and thank you so much for using my Amazon link. I really appreciate it! said...

You're welcome, Jessica. :) Hope you find them helpful!

Annette said...

Another trick is to use a balled up kleenex.

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